Liverpool to become a trailblazer for mental health support in schools.

Liverpool has been chosen as one of 25 sites to become a trailblazer for mental health support in schools.

This exciting opportunity will further develop the partnership working that is currently taking place between Education, Local Authority, CCG and Liverpool CAMHS Partnership. The additional capacity and funding this trailblazer will bring to the city will ensure children and young people and families are accessing support at the earliest of opportunities and more specialist provision when needed.

CHILDREN with mental health issues in Liverpool will get extra help after the city was named as a ‘trailblazer area’ under a new government scheme.

The city is one of 25 mental health trailblazer areas announced by health Secretary Matt Hancock today (Thursday 20 December).

Under the new scheme, the city council will work with Liverpool’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS England and local schools to transform children’s mental health care.

The move comes as part of an extra £20.5 billion investment in the NHS by the government as will see the creation of new Mental Health Support Teams, which will be based in the city’s schools and colleges. Each team will work with around 20 schools and support up to 8,000 children and young people.

Dr Fiona Lemmens, a Liverpool GP and Chair for NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) said:“We’re delighted that Liverpool has been chosen to become a trailblazer for mental health support in schools. We know that there is an increasing demand for the provision of mental health services for children and young people across Liverpool, and the additional capacity and funding that this will bring to the city will help us to work closely with our partners in the local authority and education to ensure that children, young people, and their families, are able to access the mental health support they need at the earliest opportunity.”

The work of the new teams will build on existing support from school counsellors, nurses and educational psychologists and the voluntary sector. They will directly treat children with mild to moderate mental health issues and provide access to NHS services for those with more severe needs.

The Department for Education will also fund training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges. These leads will work closely with the Mental Health Support Teams to ensure children and young people get the right help as soon as possible.

The new trailblazer sites are expected to be rolled out across the country by 2023/24.

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet member for children’s social care, Cllr Barry Kushner, said:Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet member for children’s social care, Cllr Barry Kushner, said: “It is obviously welcome to get any additional resources from Government, and particularly for children’s mental health. Two years ago, we lost around £740,000 per year for children’s mental health services, due to cuts to the CCG, so this funding replaces that. We will work with our health partners and community-based provision, to build up our early help offer. The increase in the numbers of children as young as seven with mental ill health is overwhelming schools, early help and specialist services. The Government needs to take this much more seriously than it has been doing. This is a step in the right direction, but we need large strides.”

Government Announcement:

Children and young people’s mental health services to be transformed across 25 trailblazer areas in England;
Government renews commitment to improving children’s mental health support, a key priority of the Long-Term Plan for the NHS.

The NHS is uniting with schools and colleges in 25 areas across England to provide expert mental health support for up to half a million pupils a year – part of the Government’s ambitious plans to transform children and young people’s mental health through the NHS Long-Term Plan.

New Mental Health Support Teams will support a population of more than 470,000 children and young people, who will be based in and near schools and colleges, with support starting from next year. The first cohort of new staff are on track to begin their training at seven universities nationwide in January.

One in nine young people aged five to 15 had a mental health condition in 2017 and teenagers with a mental disorder are more than two and a half times more likely to have a mental disorder in adulthood.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said:

“Children and young people with mental illness should receive the same level of support as those with physical illness.

“Made possible by the extra £20.5 billion we are investing in the NHS, today’s announcement will see the health and education systems come together so our children can access the help they need at school and takes us a step closer to achieving our goal of parity between mental and physical health.”

Each designated team will support up to 8,000 children and young people and will be responsible for a cluster of around 20 schools and colleges each, depending on their size.

The teams will build on support already in place from school counsellors, nurses, educational psychologists and the voluntary sector to treat those with mild to moderate mental health issues in school and will help children and young people with more severe needs to access the right support and provide a link to specialist NHS services.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said:

“Children today experience pressures that we as adults often find hard to appreciate, or possibly even understand. We are much more aware of mental health in the education sector now than in decades gone by and rightly so, and teachers are often able to recognise the early warning signs of changes in their pupils’ behaviour or mood, but they are not mental health professionals. That’s why through these new support teams working with schools, we will speed up access to specialist services and make expert advice available to those who need it the most.

“We want to build on the range of excellent work that already takes place in schools and colleges. Supporting good mental health goes hand-in-hand with equipping young people with the qualifications, knowledge and resilience they need to live a fulfilling adult life. I want to make sure that our children are able to grow up to become happy and well-rounded individuals well set to deal with the challenges of the modern world. By making health education a required part of the curriculum – teaching what good mental and physical health looks like, the important links between the two and how to seek help when needed – we will help to give young people the tools they need to be ready to thrive when they leave school.”

“Early intervention is crucial when it comes to mental ill-health and today’s announcement will ensure that young people can immediately access life-changing support when the signs of mental health issues first appear, helping to prevent these problems from escalating further into adulthood.

“Encouraging young people to think about their mental wellbeing in the same way they do their physical aches and pains is a vital part of our goal to put mental and physical health on equal footing and will help ensure no young person is left to suffer in silence.

“It’s estimated one in four of us has a common mental disorder at any one time – I’m confident that by introducing improved access to critical care at a young age we are delivering on our promise to help people lead healthier lives for longer and build an NHS that’s fit for the future, which will be set out further in our Long-Term Plan.”

The Department for Education will also fund training for senior mental health leads in schools and colleges – working to ensure a ‘whole school’ approach to mental health and wellbeing.

These leads will work closely with the Mental Health Support Teams to ensure children and young people get the right help as soon as possible including harnessing new technology.

The trailblazer sites are made up of the NHS and key local stakeholders, including schools and colleges, local authorities and third sector organisations and will be rolled out to between one-fifth and one quarter of the country by 2023/24.

Plans for further expansion of children and young people’s mental health services will be set out in the Long-Term Plan for the NHS.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England’s National Mental Health Director said:

“There is an enormous amount of work underway to support children and young people when they experience mental health difficulties. Working in partnership with colleagues in education such as school nurses and educational psychologists, this will improve the mental health support and provision on offer and we look forward to seeing the results over the next few years.”

• There will be 25 trailblazer sites that will provide 59 Mental Health Support Teams in this first wave of roll out which will cover just under 500,000 children and young people across the country.
• Training will begin in January 2019, and the expectation is that the Mental Health Support Teams will be operational by December 2019.
• The seven Higher Education Institutions are: University of Reading, University of Northumbria at Newcastle, Greater Manchester Mental Health CBT Training Centre, King’s College London, University College London, University of Northampton, University of Exeter.